Author: David

I always like to hear carpet cleaners talk about pricing. It’s always an interesting discussion!

I remember attending a course at Ashcombe Distributors (remember them?) in the 1980s about marketing a carpet cleaning business. Until that time I didn’t realise that I needed to market my business. I assumed that if I was good enough at my job, people would be forming a queue outside my door.

What prompted it was the appearance of a competitor in the next road to where I lived with his van boldly signwritten with an offer of Lounge, Dining Room, Hall, Stairs & Landing AND a three-piece suite for £30. At the time I was charging more than that for the suite alone.

I remember being convinced that my business was finished. So I learned about marketing out of desperation.

However, after the course I learned that in EVERY industry there are price points. Some budget, some premium, some in-between.

For example, did you know that here in the UK you can buy a smartphone for £20 on Amazon right now? Why then are people waiting in line every time a new iPhone is released and paying 30 times more! Why are Mercedes, BMW and Audi selling in droves when you can buy a Ford or even a Kia for a small fraction of what they are charging.

The answer is that in every market there are price shoppers looking for the cheapest and there are premium buyers even in carpet cleaning.

How often on cleaning forums do you see the question… “How much should I charge for carpet cleaning? What is the “right price”? This is what has been called “marketing incest” where every cleaner looks at everyone else and does what they do and just like real incest ends up pretty stupid.

Business is all about margins and profit. The competitor I referred to earlier went out of business long ago. He has been replaced by many more like him who have also gone out of business. Many, many carpet cleaners are slowing going broke…they just don’t realise it yet.

A turnover of 60K or 100K is NOT salary. It’s NOT what you take home. Getting the customer (or more accurately “buying the customer”) takes time which is also work. And of course, there’s all the other business expenses. And then there’s holidays.¦
It’s often said on cleaning forums we’re NOT dentists or doctors, we’re only carpet cleaners.

By the way, I’m not a qualified dentist or doctor but I often earn MORE than them because unlike them I’m a risk-taking business owner (ie. owner of a cleaning business, owner of a business marketing a cleaning business, owner of a client retention business, office manager, hirer and firer, employee parenter etc etc).

Oh, and at one time, (before I paid it off) my house was on the line.

That’s why I charge high prices!

If you were to seek advice on improving your business, you would likely be told that you need to "build your brand" or create "brand awareness".

Typically this means spending money on a fancy logo and generally telling the marketplace what a great business you are. If you do this, you are following the lead set by many, many corporate type companies.

But is this the best way for you as a small carpet cleaner to get more sales?

I was intrigued a while ago while watching a football game to see that travel agent Thomas Cook had changed their logo. It was on one of the electronic billboards.

A bit of research on the internet revealed more:

• This week the Thomas Cook Group unveiled the next stage in its journey back from the edge of a financial abyss: a new corporate identity known as the "Sunny Heart"
• According to the firm, "The new, unified brand captures the essence of Thomas Cook: how it delivers inspiring personal journeys as the trusted pioneer in global travel." (The Independent)
• Thomas Cook says that the new visual identity and branding looks to reflect the "warmth and approachability", "trust and personalisation" and "message of High Tech, High Touch of the brand.
• Tour operator Thomas Cook has ditched the globe logo it first used in 1880, replacing it with a 'Sunny Heart', as the tour operator continues its recovery from near collapse. The 172-year-old firm unveiled the design alongside a new slogan - 'Let's Go' - spelling the end for its famous motto 'Don't just book it, Thomas Cook it.' The rebranding is part of a root-and-branch overhaul by new boss Harriet Green, who was recruited last year to save the household name from collapse, after it was bailed out by its banks. (Daily Mail)

You'll notice that in response to near collapse, they have decided that the answer is... a new logo!

But surely the most important question of all is... will this lead to SALES?

Let's ask one of its valued customers... ME!

I've travelled with Thomas Cook twice in the last 18 months. What has been my experience? On a recent trip to Mexico the transfer took two and a half hours arriving at my hotel at the equivalent of two in the morning. The problem? The advertised transfer was one hour. The previous year with a rival firm was 35 minutes. Apparently they had crammed in more drop-off points before ours!

On a previous holiday to Egypt, they cancelled an entire plane leaving passengers bound for Manchester to travel via Gatwick. An add-on of several hours! Incredibly they didn't let the Manchester bound passengers know until they got to the airport in Egypt. It also meant that although I had pre-booked a window seat, I ended up sitting in the centre row.

I decided there and then that I would NOT travel with this company again unless I had very little choice.

Would the money spent on "re-branding" not be better spent on improving the experience for the customer? Frankly I don't care about their logo or their "trust and personalisation" or their "warmth and approachability." But I do care about getting what I've paid for. A re-brand ("new pretty logo") does not fool me!

So what brand strategy should you follow?

• Forget "brand awareness" You don't know whether it's successful or not as it can't be measured.
• Forget advertising to simply remind people of your existence. Killer advertising is simply salesmanship multiplied according to copywriter Gary Halbert
• A good ad will work the first time. They don't need to see it 7, 15 or 20 times
• Don't be fooled that a brand is the most important thing. The people who give you money are!
• Forget "clever" advertising with just your "image" displayed. If your salesman acted strange or did a silly dance and then mentioned the name of your company at the end you wouldn't want it. Instead you want them to find out what the persons problem is, what their objections are and present your product as the best solution. That's salesmanship!

I'll give the last word to Claude Hopkins who wrote about silly logo's and image type advertising this way: "Instead of sales, they seek applause".

I say... let them have the applause - my bank doesn't accept it!

There’s an old adage that says “when everybody’s your customer, nobody’s your customer”.

That’s because you cannot usually appeal to all markets within a category. Certainly that’s true with carpet cleaning. In fact, many carpet cleaners aren’t even aware that there are different markets. Often the sales pitch is “we’ll beat any competitors price”. But this doesn’t take into account what different prospects actually want. You could be trying to appeal to the wrong market.

Sometimes it’s difficult to see it in your own industry. After all, many customers just want their carpets cleaned for the cheapest price!

However, it’s easy to see different markets elsewhere.

Take cars for instance. A Mercedes owner is not the same as a Kia owner. Someone who just wants to get from A to B or who only has a few thousand pounds to spend is not going to walk into Mercedes and try to “knock them down”. Or say “I can buy a Kia for a third of your price”

And very often they may think “I would never pay 40k on a car!” Not that they’re bad people...they’re just terrible prospects for a Mercedes dealership. Do you think Mercedes dealers worry about those who buy Kia’s and say to themselves “we must try to appeal to these people and get them to buy our cars”? No, they simply recognise that they serve a different market. In most cases, a Kia owner will NOT be buying a Mercedes.

It’s the same with carpet cleaning. Someone who can only afford (or only wants to pay) £20 to get their carpets cleaned would likely feel they are being “ripped off” when given a quote of £80 or £100.

In every market there are typically four types of shopper:

Price Shoppers who always have to feel that they are getting the lowest price on everything they buy. You can get their business by offering the lowest price, but someone else will always come up with a lower price and take them away from you.

Middle Market usually picks a price somewhere in the middle because they don't trust that they get good service at the lowest price, but they still need to feel they are getting a deal by not paying the highest price. This is where many carpet cleaners think they are. They’ll say things like “we’re not the cheapest but we’re the best”. Yet they are missing out on possibly the most lucrative and rewarding market, one with the least aggravation...

Premium Price Shoppers.

These fall into two categories…

Prestige Shoppers who always have to pay the highest price or “the best” and let everyone know what they paid.

Value Premium Shoppers who can best be summed up with the maxim, "You get what you pay for." They believe that products and services are priced where they are for a reason. They have learned this through hard experience and wasted money. Value premium shoppers will never pay the lowest price even if it has a really logical story attached to it because they just can't understand that something that is cheap offers good value.

Notice how price shoppers will never pay premium prices. But also that premium price shoppers will never pay the lowest price! That’s why “when everybody’s your customer, nobody’s your customer”. You can’t target and appeal to both.

Many carpet cleaners price their service too low out of fear of not getting the job. In doing so, they may "pay the price" of lower perception of value, lost business, and reduced profits.

Of course, it’s not just a case of declaring that you’re a premium priced carpet cleaner. Putting a Mercedes price tag on a Kia doesn’t fool anyone. You can put lipstick on a pig...it’s still a pig!

So, choose your target market carefully. If you want to service the lowest price take a warning from Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury and Morrisons who have all just announced sales falling. It seems their customers are loyal only to price and are deserting to Aldi and Lidl. Unlike Waitrose who service quality seekers and don’t claim “lowest price” and have seen an increase in sales.

In fact, choosing who you want as your customer should be the very first thing that you do.

Is it better for carpet cleaners to just focus on cleaning carpets or branch out into window cleaning, builders cleans, hard floors etc?

 I recently had an enquiry about cleaning some carpets from a couple in a fairly affluent area. I had cleaned the carpets of their parents just the week before and they had seen and were amazed with the result. The carpets were synthetic and had been down for about 28 years. Yet they now looked as though they were new. We had left a voucher for a free trial area of carpet to be cleaned to pass on to friends or family so they could see risk-free what we could do for them also. So now, the son wanted me to give a quote for cleaning his carpets.

There’s nothing better than a recommendation like this of course, as not only is the cleaning business recommended but also importantly, the price is known. Hence there’s no risk of ‘sticker shock’. So unless they really don’t like you, a booking should be a foregone conclusion.

We always make a visit to measure up and quote as well as qualify what stains may not be removed. So this was done and a price left with them. Nearly £400.

The couple said they would talk it over and phone soon. The wife in particular kept saying how well her in-laws carpet had cleaned and how badly her carpets needed cleaning.

Well a few days later a message was left on our answerphone at the office... “We’re pleased to accept your quote if you can take 10% off the invoice. If you wish to go ahead please phone me.”

Now, what would you have done? After all, this is not a small job. It would still have amounted to about £350!

Well, here’s what we did....

I phoned back and said that he already had one of the rooms covered by the free trial offer and this was actually worth more than the 10% discount he wanted and so I couldn’t reduce the price any more. With that, he simply said that he would look elsewhere for someone to clean his carpets.

Many cleaners would think me foolish for turning down a job that would still bring in about £350 for the sake of quibbling over £40 or so but here’s my reasons for doing it.

In Larry Steinmetz book How to Sell at Prices Higher Than Your Competition he makes the point that there are consequences to dealing with people who try to knock you down on price.

Included are:

• They will brag to their friends how they beat you down on price so any referrals will do the same.
• People who want discounted prices are the most likely to complain about every little thing. In the end, you can wish you’d never taken them on.
• People who want you to lower your prices for no reason are the most difficult to deal with generally and don’t appreciate what you do.
• They are typically disloyal and will switch to another company whose price is lower.
• When they want more work doing, they already know that they can get you to lower your prices simply by asking.

The result?

We’ve never heard from them again and don’t expect to. I’ve lost £350 in the short term but probably a lot of needless hassle in the long term.

The most important thing is that a good service business is built largely on quality repeat and referral work.

I recently heard a carpet cleaner complaining about a job he had quoted for but didn't get. Apparently the customer didn't understand that this was a “very good price” The cleaner simply couldn't understand why he hadn't got the job!

Zig Ziglar said, "Every sale has five basic obstacles: no need, no money, no hurry, no desire, no trust."

It could very well be that the last one was the problem. Trust is based not on a sales pitch or a low price offer but on behaviour. People are very skeptical when they are being sold.

It’s often been said that people buy from people they “know, like and trust” In this untrusting world, that is more important than ever before. But you already know this. Its far easier to sell to a customer who has used you before than to a new customer.

Its the reason why ‘brands’ often outsell ‘generic.’ People trust them. They’ve usually advertised heavily to build up awareness and familiarity. That equates to trust. This is not a strategy that I recommend for a small carpet cleaning business. It’s far too costly, but there are things that you can do to increase TRUST which in turn will lead to sales.

1. Show Up on Time. If you say you’ll arrive at 8.30am be there on time...or slightly before. Good timekeeping conveys respect for the customer as well as self discipline and professionalism. Being late (and not letting the customer know if it’s unavoidable) greatly reduces trust.
2. Do What You Say You’ll Do. Keep your promises and don’t make lame excuses. Unreliability reduces trust. Especially with the older generation.
3. Dress And Groom Well. Make sure that your uniform is immaculate. Yes...uniform. It conveys an air of authority and competency. That you know what you’re doing. That’s why your doctor wears a white coat!
4. Listen Before You Prescribe. Prospective customers want to be understood. They don’t want ‘glib’ answers that show you’re not really listening. They don’t want a sales close...they want a prescription to their problems.

Interestingly, I recently had an opportunity to have all of this demonstrated to me. I needed a new driveway and decided on block paving.

My first thought was “Who do I know that does this type of work?” (“Who do I trust?”).

Then, “Who do I know who knows someone who does this type of work?” (Referred trust)

Then, and only then did I start to look at adverts.

The results were quite interesting. Out of four that I asked to quote only two actually turned up. One turned up late as I was just going out. Only one showed up on time, looked the part and listened to what I actually wanted. Was he the cheapest? I don’t know. But he got the job.

Yes, build trust and your sales and referrals will increase.